GPA – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Unexpected Futurist: Mark Twain, Tesla, and a Worldwide Visual Telephone System

Johnny Boston — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 19:38:01 +0000

When one thinks of Mark Twain, one thinks of folksy wit, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and the Mississippi River. Twain’s work immortalized the rapidly changing United States of the 1800s. But in his personal life, Twain often preferred the future to nostalgia, supporting women’s suffrage and civil rights, and frequently being contemptuous of what he considered to be the absurd and corrupt values of the past. He harbored a long running fascination with technology and new gadgets, and frequently invested in the latter — albeit with spotty success, at best. But Twain cemented his becoming an honorary futurist via his long friendship with inventor and Mad-scientist archetype Nikola Tesla.

Should We be Cautious about Envisioning Dystopias?

Johnny Boston — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 19:20:03 +0000

How will our relationship to technology evolve in the future? Will we regard it as something apart from ourselves, part of ourselves, or as a new area of evolution? In this new video from the Galactic Public Archives, Futurist Gray Scott explains that we are a part of a technological cosmos. Do you agree with Scott that technology is built into the universe, waiting to be discovered?

Follow Gray Scott:
Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Unexpected Futurist: Ben Franklin envisions 2776 — and Cryonics

Johnny Boston — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 19:09:43 +0000

In Unexpected Futurist, we profile the lesser known futurist side of influential individuals. This episode’s unexpected time-traveler: Benjamin Franklin. Ben Franklin was an inventor, observer, electricity pioneer, and serial experimenter, so it’s not entirely surprising he looked to the future. But it turns out he was looking to the far, far future. In 1780 he wrote a letter to a friend in which he lamented that he was born during the dawn of science.

Futurist Gray Scott: We are Part of a Technological Cosmos

Johnny Boston — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 17:06:12 +0000

Follow Gray Scott:

Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Life or Death: Will Robo-Cars Swerve for Squirrels?

Johnny Boston — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 19:24:36 +0000

Self Driving Cars and Ethics. It’s a topic that has been debated in blogs, op-eds, academic research papers, and youtube videos. Everyone wants to know, if a self-driving car has to choose between sacrificing its occupant, or terminating a car full of nobel prize winners, who will it pick? Will it be programmed to sacrifice for the greater good, or protect itself — and its occupants — at all costs? But in the swirl of hypothetical discussion around jaywalking Grandmas, buses full of school-children, Kantian Ethics and cost-maps, one crucial question is being forgotten:

What about the Squirrels?

What is your take on the ethics of driverless vehicles? Should programmers attempt to give vehicles the ability to weigh moral problems, or just vehicles only have the aim of self-preservation?

Futurist Gray Scott: We Can’t Ignore Our Psychological Future

Johnny Boston — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 17:44:32 +0000

Why are we often so wrong about how the future and future technology will reshape society and our personal lives? In this new video from the Galactic Public Archives, Futurist Gray Scott tells us why he thinks it is important to look at all aspects of the future.

Follow Gray Scott:

Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Autonomous Cars: The Ultimate Job Creator?

Johnny Boston — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 17:29:37 +0000

In our last film, we explored how the introduction of autonomous, self-driving cars is likely to kill a lot of jobs. Many millions of jobs, in fact. But is it short sighted to view self-driving vehicles as economic murderers? Is it possible that we got it totally wrong, and automated vehicles won’t be Grim Reapers — but rather the biggest job creators since the internet?

In this video series, the Galactic Public Archives takes bite-sized looks at a variety of terms, technologies, and ideas that are likely to be prominent in the future. Terms are regularly changing and being redefined with the passing of time. With constant breakthroughs and the development of new technology and other resources, we seek to define what these things are and how they will impact our future.

Click Here for Happiness

Johnny Boston — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 19:56:28 +0000

Technology can be wonderful. But how do you keep track of yourself when technology allows you to be everywhere at once?

In this film Prof. Yair Amichai-Hamburger (director of the Research Center for Internet Psychology at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications) argues that even though technology allows us to reach out and connect more easily than ever before, if we don’t ever take a step back, we can lose track of our humanity in the process.

Will Self-Driving Cars Kill Your Job?

Johnny Boston — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 16:30:57 +0000

Self-driving cars are pretty cool. Really, who wouldn’t want to spend their daily commute surfing social media, chatting with friends or finishing the Netflix series they were watching at 4 am the night before? It all sounds virtually utopian. But what if there is a dark side to self-driving cars? What if self-driving cars kill the jobs? ALL the jobs?

A Net Neutrality Nightmare? / Part II (Future A to Z)

Johnny Boston — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 19:44:27 +0000

The recent efforts to remove Net Neutrality have given many a sense of impending doom we are soon to face. What happens to an Internet without Net Neutrality? Advocates have a vision of the possible results — and it is quite the nightmare! In this segment of Future A to Z, The Galactic Public Archives takes a cheeky, yet compelling perspective on the issue.

Part 1 / Part 2